Nick Hammond
Tannhäuser
Blood-covered near-naked men add to the air of orgiastic intensity. Photo: Opéra National de Paris To say that the first Paris performances of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, about an artist torn between the lure of sensuality and that of spirituality, … Read More
Tuer le Père
Certain aspects of novelist Amélie Nothomb’s work are utterly predictable: for example, every fall a new novel (usually around 150 pages long) appears without fail, with a portrait of the author (easily identifiable by her pale face and long black … Read More
Omar m’a Tuer
The violent murder in the Alpes-Maritime region of wealthy widow Ghislaine Marchal in June 1991 has long fascinated the French press and public. Marchal’s body was discovered in her property’s cellar, which had been barricaded from within. On the wall, … Read More
Götterdämmerung
Siegfried (played by Torsten Kerl) toys with the world. Photo: Opéra national de Paris/Elisa Haberer Detractors of Wagner’s Ring Cycle claim that the four operas promote an Aryan ideal of heroism, which explains why they appealed to the extremism of … Read More
Le Gamin au Vélo
The Dardenne brothers have long been the darlings of the Cannes film festival, winning the Palme d’Or twice (for Rosetta in 1999 and L’Enfant in 2005), and in this year’s festival picking up the Grand Prix for their new movie, … Read More
Olivier Py
GOOD-BYE ODEON, HELLO AVIGNON At the very moment that Paris’s Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe is enjoying its greatest success, both critically and at the box office, the French government has suddenly decided to sack its head, Olivier Py, and replace him … Read More
Nous, Princesses de Clèves
The other day I walked into one of the many chic gift shops in the Marais district of Paris and found myself drawn to a pack of old books, only to discover that they had been tied together so tightly … Read More
Paris à la Carte
Return of Marks & Sparks Ten years ago, when the quintessentially British food and clothes retailer Marks & Spencer decided to withdraw all its outlets from France, there was a sense of collective despair and outrage. After all, its main … Read More
Avant l’Aube
When I saw that Raphaël Jacoulot’s Avant l’aube (Before Dawn) stars three of the finest actors of their respective generations, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Sylvie Testud and Vincent Rottiers, it felt like an opportunity not to be missed. Clearly inspired by the … Read More
Siegfried & Káťa Kabanová
Torsten Kerl as Siegfried and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as a campy Mime. Photo: Charles Duprat / Opéra National de Paris Two operas currently being performed in Paris, although written only 50 years apart, could hardly be more different from each other. … Read More